KPTV
KPTV is the FOX TV affiliate serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. It broadcasts it's analog signal on VHF ch. 12 & it's DT signal on UHF ch. 30. It's transmitter is located in Portland. KPTV is owned by Meredith Corporation & is sister station to KPDX, Portland's My Network TV affiliate. History 1950s The station signed on the air September 20, 1952 on ch. 27, as Oregon's first TV station, as well as the world's 1st commercial TV station on the UHF band (though, the 1st experimental station award goes to Bridgeport, Connecticut's KC2XAK on Ch. 24). It was owned by Empire Coil. As Portland's only TV station @ the time, KPTV carried programming from all 4 networks: ABC, CBS, NBC & the now-defunct DuMont TV Network. CBS disappeared from KPTV's schedule when Portland's 1st VHF TV station, KOIN on ch. 6, signed on October 15, 1953 @ that point, KPTV's primary affiliation became NBC. Empire Coil sold KPTV & it's other broadcasting property, WXEL-TV (now WJW-TV) in Cleveland, to Storer Broadcasting on November 17, 1954. The ch. 12 allocation was @ first occupied by KLOR-TV, which signed on March 8, 1955 as an ABC affiliate with a secondary DuMont affiliation. The ABC affiliation on KLOR lasted a little over a year & a 1/2, DuMont ceased network operations in 1956. When KGW-TV (ch. 8) signed on as a full-time ABC affiliate, on December 15 1956, KLOR became an independent station. On April 17 1957, KPTV & KLOR came under common ownership when Detroit businessman George Haggerty purchased KPTV from Storer & KLOR from it's local owners. Both KLOR ch. 12 & KPTV ch. 27 signed off the air on April 30 1957. The following day, the 2 stations merged under KPTV's license & call letters, using KLOR's ch. 12 assignment. The ch. 27 allocation was later used by an independent station with the call letters KHTV, which was on the air for less than 4 months, from July 6 to October 31, 1959. (The KHTV calls were later used on Houston's Ch. 39, now KIAH; that station is unrelated to KPTV. The ch. 27 allocation in Portland is currently home to the DT signal of PBS member station KOPB-TV, but will be vacated in February 2009 as that station will convert it's present ch. 10 analog signal to DT) On April 17, 1959, KPTV swapped affiliations with KGW, becoming an ABC affiliate. On September 1 of that year, KPTV was sold to the NAFI Corporation, which then purchased Chris-Craft in early 1960, the merged NAFI/Chris-Craft companies became known as Chris-Craft Industries. 1960s On March 1 1964, KPTV lost it's ABC affiliation to previously independent KATU. The station sued ABC & Fisher Broadcasting for breach of contract. The proceeds from the settlement went to rebuild the station into a color facility. A color mobile unit was also purchased as well. Soon KPTV went on to become an independent station. 1970s The station's long-running news program, The 10 O'Clock News, launched in 1970. KPTV was the first local station to broadcast the Portland Trail Blazers from 1970-1978. Jimmy Jones was the first play-by-play announcer. He was also KPTV sports director @ the time. 1980s KPTV was 1 of FOX network's original charter affiliates in 1986; however, the station disaffiliated from the network in 1988 & reverted to it's independent status. The FOX affiliation ended up on upstart KPDX. 1990s KPTV once again gained a network affiliation in 1995, as Portland's UPN outlet (and the network O&O under United/Chris Craft's stake). 2000s Chris-Craft sold most of it's TV holdings, including KPTV, to News Corporation in 2000 (with the sale closing on July 31, 2001). Instead of keeping KPTV, News Corp. decided to trade it to Meredith in exchange for WOFL in Orlando, Florida, a deal which was finalized on June 17, 2002. This move gave Meredith, which already owned KPDX, the 1st "duopoly" operation in the Portland market. Meredith decided to move the FOX affiliation to the higher-rated KPTV. As a result, an affiliation switch occurred on September 2 2002, with KPDX becoming a UPN affiliate & KPTV becoming a FOX affiliate once again. KPDX's news department was merged into KPTV's newsroom (although KPTV's operation actually moved into KPDX's newer facility, located in Beaverton) & KPDX's existing 10 PM newscast was cancelled. KPTV, however, chose not to air FOX's children programming (4 Kids TV; formerly FOX Kids), which remains on KPDX. On June 5 2007, KPTV became the 2nd Portland TV station to broadcast it's daily newscasts in widescreen. On September 8 2008, it expanded to air a weekday 5 PM newscast after it's existing 4 PM one, as well as producing a weekday 8 PM newscast for KPDX. Ownership history * Empire Coil (1952-1954) * Storer Broadcasting (1954-1957) * George Haggerty (1957-1959) * NAFI Corporation (1959-1960) * Chris-Craft (1960-2001) * News Corporation (2001-2002) * Meredith Corporation (2002-Present) Local Programming Weekdays *Good Day Oregon - 4:30-9 AM *MORE Good Day Oregon - 9-10 AM *The 5 O'clock News - 5-6 PM *The 6 O'clock News - 6-7 PM *The 8 O'clock News - 8-9 PM (on KPDX) *The 10 O'clock News - 10-11 PM *The 11 O'clock News - 11-11:30 PM Saturdays *Good Day Oregon - 6-9 AM *The 10 O'clock News - 10-11 PM Sundays *FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace 6-7 AM *Good Day Oregon - 7-9 AM *The 5 O'clock News - 5-6 PM *The 10 O'clock News - 10-11 PM *Oregon Sports Final - 11-11:30 PM On-air personalities News anchors *Pete Ferryman - Good Day Oregon *Julie Grauert - Good Day Oregon *Kimberly Maus - BetterTV, 4 & 5 PM *Wayne Garcia - 4, 8 & 10 PM *Shauna Parsons - 5, 8 & 10 PM *Kevin Coari - 11 PM *Debra Gil - weekend Good Day Oregon *Chad Carter - weekend 5 & 10 PM *Sophie Soong - weekend 5 & 10 PM Weather *Andy Carson - Good Day Oregon *Mark Nelsen (Chief Meteorologist, CBM) - 10 & 11 PM, 8 PM on KPDX *Brian MacMillan - Good Day Oregon 6-9am *Sophie Soong - Good Day Oregon 6-9am *Stephanie Kralevich - Week nights 5 & 6 PM Sports *Matt Smith, Host, Oregon Sports Final *Mark Ross, Sports Anchor (Fri-Sun) Afternoon & evening reporters *Jim Hyde, General Assignment *Jamie Wilson, General Assignment *David Wilson, General Assignment *Kerry Tomlinson, Investigators *Mark Hanrahan, General Assignment *Stephanie Kralevich, General Assignment *Stephanie Ortmann, General Assignment *Kevin Coari, General Assignment *Sophie Soong, General Assignment *Mark Ross, General Assignment *Andrew Padula, General Assignment *Brent Weisberg, General Assignment *Bill Deiz, Afternoon Traffic Morning reporters *Tony Martinez, Traffic *Mark Glyzewski, General Assignment *Marilyn Deutsch, General Assignment *Chad Carter, General Assignment *Debra Gil, General Assignment *Joe Vithayathil, Local Feature *Kara Mack, Better Portland DTV After the analog TV shutdown scheduled for February 17 2009, KPTV will return to ch. 12. Repeater stations As do all of the stations in Portland, KPTV has LP repeater stations across the state. KPTV owns some, others are owned by local translator districts. Part of the Eugene Market *'K18EA' Ch. 18 Cottage Grove News/Station presentation Newscast titles *''Newspaper of the Air'' (1953-1956) *''News Central/Newsroom'' (1956-1967) *''Eye Opener'' (1960-1961; morning newscast) *''TV-12 News'' (1967-1974) *''The Three O'clock News'' (1974-1978) *''News 12'' (1978-1996) *''Oregon's News 12'' (1996-2002) *''FOX 12 News'' (2002-present) See also * Lars Larson - Former KPTV news reporter/anchor & host of Northwest Reports * Portland Wrestling - A weekly sports program seen on KPTV for many decades * Prime Time Entertainment Network - Chris-Craft stations carried PTEN programing from 1993-1995 * Ramblin' Rod Anders - Children's programing * Rusty Nails - Children's programing External links *Yesterday's KPTV - A look back at KPTV's history